Canadian Government's
Appeasement of U.S. Imperialism
Canada's End Run for Seat on UN Security Council
- Tony Seed -
François-Philippe Champagne, Minister
of Foreign Affairs, travelled to New York on June
13 ahead of the vote
on Canada's bid for a seat on the United Nations
Security Council which
has roused much concern and opposition at home. He
is being deployed,
according to Global Affairs, for four days "to
engage with various
ambassadors and permanent representatives to
promote Canada's
commitment to peace and security, climate change,
gender equality,
economic security and multilateralism."
Champagne's schmoozing to get
votes lubricated with "aid" dollars is the end run
for the
self-serving, much-hyped bid of the Trudeau
Liberals to restore
Canada's tarnished record on the world stage.
In this way, and with customary arrogance, Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau in his February tour of
Africa to solicit votes
for a UN Security Council seat arrogated to
himself the mantle of
"white man's burden." He no doubt shed a crocodile
tear when he visited
the infamous House of Slaves in Senegal on
February 12-13 just as he
took a knee in Ottawa during protests of police
brutality and racism in
the U.S. Canada sees Senegal, whose vote it has
now apparently secured,
as a door opener for private interests in the
African market and for
the industrialized plunder of gold. In parallel,
Foreign Minister
Champagne "attended the issuance of
operating licenses for Teranga, a participant in
the Halifax Security
Forum, and Barrick Gold. The Canadian government
has negotiated foreign
investment promotion and protection agreements
(FIPAs) with Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali,
Senegal, Nigeria and
Tanzania designed to favour neo-colonial control
of mineral resources.
These are all countries which have been plundered
over and over by
colonial powers.
 Canada's is a
reputation of appeasement of the U.S. imperialist
economic bloc and war
machine all down the line under the pretext of
multilateralism:
disregard for the UN Charter and tenets of
international law; serial
violations of human rights such as those of the
Palestinian people as
well as asylum seekers; ongoing intervention in
sovereign countries
directly or through coalitions and sanctions which
it cynically refers
to as "restoring democracy;" escalating exports of
lethal arms to
conflict zones; the "go-to nation" of NATO, as it
was under the Harper government, which
openly contravenes the UN Charter and
international law; usurpation of
military and police powers during the pandemic;
and its abysmal record
of criminal negligence of the conditions of life
of the Indigenous
peoples in Canada and crimes committed against
them.
"Its recent dismissal of Wet'suwet'en law,"
writes
Pauline Easton, "which it is duty-bound to respect
and uphold, is
indicative of its attitude toward international
rule of law as well. In
fact, its bid for a seat on the UN Security
Council has come up against
ever stronger headwinds as its much-repeated claim
that Canada is a
rule of law country -- presumably making it well
suited for a seat on
the Security Council -- is exposed for all the
world to see."
Canada is vying with Ireland and Norway for the
two seats of Western Europe and other countries
category, of which
Canada is considered a part. Mexico is the only
candidate for the one
Latin American and Caribbean seat and Kenya and
Djibouti will contest
the seat available for the African group. India is
the only candidate
for a non-permanent seat from the Asia-Pacific
category. Its candidacy
was confirmed by the countries which comprise the
Asia-Pacific region,
including China and Pakistan, in June last year.
Elections for five non-permanent members of the
UN Security Council will be held on June 17. Their
term will only start
in January 2021.
The UN General Assembly elects each year five
non-permanent members (out of 10 in total) for a
two-year term. The 10
non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional
basis -- five for
African and Asian States; one for the Eastern
European States; two for
the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two
for Western European
and other States.
The UN General Assembly adopted a decision to
hold the Security
Council elections under new voting arrangements
taking into account
restrictions in place due to the COVID-19
pandemic. Rather than a
secret ballot held in the General Assembly hall,
voters are required to
visit a designated venue during a specific time
slot to cast their
ballots. Only ballots cast in the ballot boxes at
the designated venue
will be accepted and no ballots will be accepted
after the last time
slot has expired.
If the total number of ballot papers cast in all
the ballot boxes do not amount to at least a
majority of the members of
the Assembly, the President will circulate a
letter to all Member
States indicating a new date and time for the
elections.
Canada does not deserve a seat on the UN Security
Council which today acts as a block to sorting out
conflicts on a
peaceful basis because of the stranglehold over
the Security council by
the big powers, the striving of the U.S.
imperialists for domination
and the non-existence of a mechanism to sort out
the contention between
the contending powers. Having five permanent
members with veto power is
an arrangement from another age at which time the
UN had 50 members.
Today it has 193 and its decisions should come
under the rule of the
majority in the General Assembly.
As for Norway, it too is a founding member of
NATO
and toes its positions by acting as a
peace-broker. Regardless of the
outcome, the UN demands modernization and renewal
in the spirit of the
times.
Note
1.See
also "A Historical Turning Point Which the Trudeau
Government Cannot
Will Away", TML Weekly editorial, and
"Canada's
Imperialist Multilateralism," Margaret Villamizar,
TML Weekly,
February 22, 2020.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 21 - June 13, 2020
Article Link:
Canadian Government's
Appeasement of U.S. Imperialism: Canada's End Run for Seat on UN Security Council - Tony Seed
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
